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You can do it that way, but if the shop has a pneumatic brad nailer it will speed up the process a lot.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:17 am You can do it that way, but if the shop has a pneumatic brad nailer it will speed up the process a lot.

Amen to that!

Can't imagine having to wait for PL to dry before moving on.....I'm not that patient.

Day 3 in the workshop.
It was only 5 hours, and we had to wait for some tools, so we only managed to do one round of glue, as we had to move the cabinets by car when the workshop closed. Well, we got to work on all the other parts, so now it's just about assembly.

First we installed the top pieces on both cabinets. We installed it with jigs like the bottom part. This way we just had to put it down and it fell right into place. Using ratchet slings gave a nice spread out pressure. Tight but not enough to bend the plate. + My friend who can't wait to hear them.. We did a lot of work on the different parts while we waited for the glue. The ports / handles were done and made super smooth! They feel so nice! The throats were cut in 45 degrees, so I made this construction to get the rest sanded. It didn't work as well as I expected.. So I have to redo this part unfortunately.. I didn't have enough time to fix it, so unfortunately we won't be able to install the throats at home before going to the workshop again.. Of course we could do it manually with sandpaper. Will try to do one and see how it goes. Slow progress is also progress.. Top plates installed and clamps removed.
We can now transport it, as it's rock solid. Can't wait to install the sides. Can only attach 5 images, so will continue in next post.

Day 3 - part 2:

My mum is getting married today, and I have postponed my assignments to have more time this week. So now the built will halt for some time. I have to focus on my studies until Easter. Also I'll go travelling for 10 days from Thursday, so unfortunately we have to wait to finish the cabs..
Therefore we also brought the cabs home, as there no storage place for bigger stuff in the workshop. The two cabs stacked in the sunlight - beautiful view.
Also the tophat holes align perfectly and the cabs are very symmetrical. Quite happy with the build so far. The sides are perfectly aligned with the baffle. Very satisfying! The jigs did wonder.. And as I've learned so far: you can never use too many jigs I have a question: Should we remove the PU before installing the throat reflectors, or won't it do anything? We removed the biggest chunks, but holy moly - removing PU manually is time consuming.. We didn't have any acetone, otherwise we'd removed the worst before hardening.
And in what level should we remove the PU? We will remove all PU in the baffle holes and also all the parts that you can see - of course. But still, what about the "hidden" parts? That's it for this week. The build is progressing quite well. Looking forward to see how it all fits when we have to install the sides.
Also excited to start assembling the HF horn. The parts are cut already, but we focused on the parts that required more tools in the workshop.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:17 am You can do it that way, but if the shop has a pneumatic brad nailer it will speed up the process a lot.

Will definitely use it next time.. only thing I was worried about, was eventually leaking the PU to the part of the wax paper with the nail going through.. actually the reason we didn't do it.. this is not an issue?
I actually realised that our jigs were so tight, that the PU squeezed out everywhere, but where the jig was attached. But can you get the same pressure?

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:23 pm Amen to that!

Can't imagine having to wait for PL to dry before moving on.....I'm not that patient.

As it's our first build, having a little more time on our hands is probably for the best
But I can imagine.. it's almost torture waiting when you just want to continue

The initial pressure is provided with jigs and clamps, you still use them. The brads maintain the pressure, and most important the parts positioning, allowing you to remove the clamps and jigs once they're driven. If you put a brad every 25mm or less the assembly will be secure as long as you don't drop it. The brads don't go through the wax paper. Using brads you don't use wax paper anyway, as you'll be removing the jigs before the adhesive sets.
There's no need to remove adhesive squeeze out on the inside of the cabinet. The time to remove it with a sharp chisel is one to two hours after application, when the adhesive is done expanding but is not yet fully hardened.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:00 am There's no need to remove adhesive squeeze out on the inside of the cabinet. The time to remove it with a sharp chisel is one to two hours after application, when the adhesive is done expanding but is not yet fully hardened.

+1
Absolutely. Make plans to get it before it turns to stone. It's super easy then.

hbinderup94 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2019 3:42 pm I have some questions:


Question #5: Painting the horn reflectors with Warnex (EU Duratex) - good idea or not? Have seen people doing duratex on the outer layers of the cabinet, but used a normal paint for the reflectors of the horn. Same goes for the HF horn. Just asking to be sure..

I used 2k primer body filler (spray) and car paint for CD horns without any problem. Scroll down to the last picture: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24406

Day 4: Long break, but back at it!

I finally had an evening off, as I've been moving, travelling, studying etc.. So during moving, I went to my mum's place with the speakers. Her husband (they just got married!) has the biggest playground ever. Bill mentioned: The one with the most tools when dying wins - well, my step dad has a good chance in that competition

So I spent some hours and got the woofer spacers and phase plugs installed. I skipped the horn throats, even though the plan said to do it first - but I'm not happy with the angles and all, so I'll make some new ones. And I didn't have access to the laser cutter, so I decided to continue the build and wait with them. Hopefully it won't ruin my build.. #1 always follow the plans..

Installing the spacers went quite well. I put them in place, and marked the holes on the baffle. Then I drilled pilot holes and tested if the screws could go in through both layers. I then glued it and screw in the screws to hold it tight. It went quite smooth with all 4 of them. The phase plugs were just hold in place as we had some small clamps that fit through the baffle holes. We then cut the extended parts of the horn. Also I didn't follow the order of the plans - sorry, but I felt that these parts weren't really depending on each other, and I needed to get the glue going, so I could continue working on something else afterwards..
We made a jig for the saw, and it went super smoothly with all sides. Extremely satisfying to look at the layers and the straight cut!! So that's all I managed to do in the evening. I was hoping to install the sides as well, but I ran into a problem.. will continue the post after this one - need more pictures.
This is how they look now. Standing in my depot at my mum's place Next week I'll have extended weekend, so I'll go for 3 full days! I won't be limited by the opening hours of the public workshop, so hopefully I'll be able to do a lot of work on them.

Day 4 - continued:

I wanted to install the sides as well. But when I saw the horn sides and finally could fit the sides I realised that one of the cabs is twisted. I don't know about the other one, as it was getting quite late.
How do I work my way around this?

These pictures I have fit it into two corners, so these two corners are shifted a fair bit: I might blame the big slings I use to hold the top in place, as it might have bent the wood a bit.. hmm.. Or maybe I just messed something up.. I just felt that I was being very careful and precise, so I was a little shocked when I saw it. Well, what do I know haha! A new challenge, and I'm up for it - hopefully I can have som help from you guys

I'd prefer that the front is "pretty" in case I have to compromise the look.. A way I thought might work: Make sure that the front is perfectly aligned and nail (I have a brad nailer now!) or screw the two corners in place, so they are held in place. Then force the other corners and screw them in as well. I'm just a little worried that it might make the cabinet weaker, as there'll be tension between the parts.. or will the wood bend over time, or simply doesn't it matter?
I also thought about just putting the side, trying to make it flush as pretty as possible, cut exceeded wood and live with it. What do you guys think?

.. oh and another thing!
I decided to buy 2x T48s from Emanuel builder, as we need the setup running soon, and I won't have much time. They arrived yesterday. We of course had a big house party where we just tried them at low volume with normal home floor speakers. Surprisingly we had the party running till 1 am, where the neighbours came and shut the party. The top speakers didn't stand a chance, and everything was running on low power from our crown XLS 1502 with the Driverack PA2 taking care of the signals.
But wow. woooow! That low end sound is truly amazing!! Can't wait to add the Omnitops!

If you consider buying, Emanuel is the best guy ever. We had a lot of contact and we decided to make a different version of the T48. Some of you might have seen his thread about it. Well, those subs are in my living room now Also included a V-plate with T-nuts and everything for it. So happy with the buy! 5/5
The packaged arrived nicely: The speakers are too big to lie in the living room with the light there as well.. So the setup was as it was.. Nevertheless it played amazingly. The floor speakers were in different positions when playing, and they did a fair job for a house party in an apartment. The Driverack's limiter kept them safe from the Crown amp's power
Well.. we could barely see the meters move on the Driverack. The signal light was on, but nothing more.. thought before the party was shut down, the low meters were moving. and so was the floor.. Well.. we had to test them With light, smoke etc.. lets just say that our friends got a little surprised - they thought it was just a regular private party.. Also, we live on 3rd floor. The speakers are sooo easy to transport. The handles makes it easy and the 18sound driver is just so light. Amazing subs. Now I just want to finish the Omnitops..

You can disassemble a joint with one of these, then re-glue it. The blade kerf is thin enough that the expanding adhesive will forgive your sins.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/rockwell-sonic ... 8oQAvD_BwE

A multi-tool is something you very seldom use, but you thank your lucky stars for having one for jobs nothing else can do.

Thanks Bill. I was hoping to avoid doing that. Hopefully we have something like that in the workshop.
There is nothing else to do?

Day 5 - first day of the weekend build!

So, as I'm posting this, I already finished the cabs. It's been some very busy days, so I haven't been able to update the thread before now. So you'll have the pleasure of reading the entire thing in one go. I'll have to do it in multiple posts, so let's go!

Day 5 was definitely the most mental part of the build. At the end of day 4 I had the horror of realising that the sides didn't fit one of the cabs.. I actually had nightmares about it and kinda lost hope for finishing the cabs on time.. Luckily only one cab was twisted, so I started installing the sides so I could skip a gluing process.
Installing the side was probably the "easiest" part so far, as it just fit snuckly. Except from the exceeded part of course, but that was planned
Then I put my focus on the other cab.. I went to a depot store and did as Bill recommended; buying an oscillating multi tool.. what a freaking life safer! It wasn't pretty, but I managed to remove the top from the twisted cab. I also found out, that I didn't twist the cab.. I had just installed the top with 1cm offset.... don't know how that happened, but it will never happen again for sure.. "measure twice.. or even more.. glue once, save the price and time for the multi tool..".. lesson learned
Now I have a pretty souvenir.. At least I had to make a new top for the cab.. Luckily I had brought some spare wood! Sawing time The top got installed on cab #2 (the one with a new top). Cab #1 was ready for side 2. It went smoothly as well.
I took a happy picture of both cabs getting their sides installed.. How couldn't I be happy..
The best thing about having a cab that is way ahead of the other, is that you feel like a pro when you do the other one.. Holy moly.. It went so fast and easy compared to the first.. Actually I almost managed to finish the cabs at the same time
I began installing the back frame on cab #1. I've read many things about this part. And also I didn't enjoy it that much.. luckily it wasn't that hard, so it went super well. But cutting, trying to fit, trim, sand, whatever to make it fit nicely.. lots of work. Well, I didn't want to rush and make another mistake. I also went for the part I was worried the most about.. installing the horn throats.. I decided to use the ones I laser cut, even though I had other thoughts earlier. They just had to be sanded a bit, as they were a little to big for the cabs. Most likely because I was too scared to make them too small when I cut the angles.. Well I spent hours sanding all of them, but I was quite happy with the result. It began to look like a horn speaker. Overall I was quite happy with the day. I spent 12~ hours in the workshop and I managed to overcome the parts that I feared the most. I was a happy man when I went to bed.

Day 6 - the second day of the weekend build!

Mentally this was surely the best day of the build so far. I was so confident from the day before, so I woke up, ate my breakfast and went directly to the workshop!
I spent quite some time finishing the back of both cabs. The back part fit perfectly in the cabs - I must have done something right there..

I installed the horn throats of cab #2. It went quite alright. I installed them with the cab lying on the back. Gravity and a tight fit was enough to keep them in place. I must have done something right there.. I sanded the ends to fit, as my saw didn't cut more than 45 degrees. It wasn't 100% smooth, so there was some small holes. Long live PU.. They ended up being super nice. And looking very sharp..
If you notice the cab sides, you'll se that 1cm is missing in the one corner.. and not the other.. well, this was the result of the shifted top that I removed the day before.. It doesn't look that pretty, and also I hoped that it wouldn't affect the sound too much.. (or none ) That was actually it. Both cabs were "done".

Time had come to start working on the diffraction horn. I also feared this part a little, as it was quite small parts, and I only had a big table saw..
I took my precautions and did it my own way.. It might sound stupid, but I used one pieces to align the other - that way I had to straight and parallel sides. I even taped them together on the middle, so my fingers wouldn't get too close to the saw. Believe it or not.. it actually worked quite well.. "If it's stupid and it works.. well then it's not stupid".. But I guess there are easier was to do it
I trial fitted the middle parts first. It seemed quite alright My method worked super well. But to my horrors.. I forgot one piece.. the one I used the align the others middle pieces..
I cut it, and then realised that it was too short.... I didn't change the settings on the saw, but doing it without the support from another piece.. well it was too hard to keep it still, so it slipped a bit and cut a bigger piece.
Luckily I had tried worse.. So I made a small rig for it and filled the gap with PU. It worked alright. It didn't look that pretty, but some sanding and paint - well no-one would ever notice. (so please don't tell anyone )
I also had another nightmare.. PU squeeze out + hot glue... what a freaking mess.. Also the wood used for the horn is quite shitty.. So it looked with a mess when I finally had it removed.. I also wondered if the horn would be able to carry the weight of the drivers.. But the PU was setting quite well, so no matter how hard I worked on it, the glued parts stayed in place. It didn't look pretty, but it was assembled.. And what sanding can't do.. We'll see later Before I went to bed, I started gluing the outer part of the horn. Again, gravity did the hardest part for me. I just thought that it looked quite beautiful, as they were just lying there.. and doing all the work by themselves.. Another day of 12~ hours of work. I was quite happy with the results. Of course there was some problems, but I managed to solve them in my own way. I actually feel that I start improving my woodworking skills.. how handy

Day 7 - last day of the weekend build!

I was sure that I'd be able to finish the cabs on time. But I also found out that I forgot to bring one of the top hats.. so the top hats got installed in 3 positions.. and one had to wait..
Well, I went directly to finishing the diffraction horns.
I forgot to take pictures of the gluing part, but it wasn't really that exciting. I used hot glue to fix small points - I learned from the nightmare of removing PU + hot glue all along an edge...
The mounting plate for the comp. drivers fit quite nicely and also the braces were installed when the PU started foaming. It was actually a nice way to install it, as it got totally covered with PU at all the important sides.
The horns started looking like something Also I installed the sides of the outer part as well. It went quite easily, as I glued the corners with hot glue, and it didn't move a mm. I'm quite happy that this is the outer part of the horn, cause it just looks so clean The different horn parts got assembled. First I painted the inside of the horn - as it would be impossible to reach afterwards.. Or actually, I didn't paint it. My girlfriend who decided to join me for the weekend helped me with this part. As she said herself: "Nice to have a boyfriend again".. Well, she didn't see me too much this weekend and finally she could help a little..
Before painting, I trimmed the exceed sides, so the cab was now a perfect square.
The horn was assembled and now it was time to work on the finish! Man o man! What a feeling! I also realised that it wasn't possible to finish the cabs, but it was alright. I was tired from working 36 hours (plus the 70 hours work week I had prior to the weekend - not to sound too lazy 24 hour shifts and University is recommended - then you have time for it all or not.. ).
We painted the entire cabs with Warnex. And wauw! I just love that stuff! So easy to cover and it looks soo freaking good! The working weekend was over and I managed to spend more than 36 hours on the cabs. The woodwork was done. It was time to trial fit the horn in the cab..
And it fit in both cabs! Also it looked way better than I expected. So happy